Mobile Organizations

• “The Chamber (of Commerce) committees…the Junior League, and a group called Forward Mobile. The people who make up these groups consider themselves the avowed, if not anointed, leadership of Mobile, and there is an incestuous overlap in the membership. They are the people who “make things happen in Mobile,” or so they have convinced themselves.” – Doug Magann, former Mobile County Public School System Superintendent 
• Forward Mobile is “an informal and “loose knit organization” of 40 or so community leaders (which) exists…to resolve issues without fanfare before they become rancorous and divisive conflicts.” – Chip Drago, Mobile Bay Times
  • “Forward Mobile … are the CEOs, the corporate plant managers, the local company owners, and the landed gentry of Mobile. The group had pulled away from the Chamber of Commerce (although most, if not all, were still members) because they were outnumbered by the small businessmen and found it difficult to get their political agendas through the larger organization.” – Doug Magann in The Harbinger
  • “Forward Mobile is just one of the area’s so-called “power circles,” a term used by political scientists to describe groups that exert influence on the political process. Some circles are readily apparent; others work behind the scenes.” – Doug Magann in The Harbinger
  • Ollie Delchamps originally developed the idea for Forward Mobile in 1983. Its mission statement said the group was formed “to discuss some possible solutions and courses of action to get our community back on track.” The first meeting was held in 1985. Forward Mobile meets monthly.
  •  “These were some of the same people sitting around the table of Forward Mobile. On the city board are Walter Hovell (President of Mobile Gas), Bruce Jones (Vice President of Alabama Power), Clarence Ball (Ball Healthcare Services), Walter Bell (MONY Financial Services), David Cooper (Cooper/Smith Stevedoring), Lowell Friedman (Creola Investment Corporation), Robert Guthans (Midstream Fuel Services), Thomas Hinds (First Alabama Bank), W.V. McRaney (Paper Products of Mobile), Frank Schmidt (SouthTrust Bank), Norvelle Smith (Smith’s Bakery), and Leonard Wyatt (AmSouth Bank). N.Q. Adams, to my astonishment, had been on the Industrial Development Board for years, and continued to serve on it until the spring of 1992. The County Board is much more efficient. It only takes three members to carry on business: David Wright (Central Bank of the South and current President of the Chamber of Commerce), James Mostellar, and Jacque Pate. All members are CEOs or owners; there are no small-business members. One real estate broker is a member: black businessman Leonard Wyatt..” Ibid. (1993)
    • William Hearin and Fred Whiddon, who has been associated with the Hearin camp for many years, lead the old guard. Others within that circle include: Arthur Outlaw and Jack Edwards, political leaders who no longer belong to Forward Mobile, and Delchamps have represented the Republican party establishment for years. Real estate developer Mayer Mitchell has been considered a powerful behind-the-scenes force for years. When car dealership owner Joe Bullard became chairman of the chamber four years ago, he and his friends were tagged the Young Turks or young power force.
  • Members as of 2005 included Cheryl Thompson of Alabama Power; Charlie Story, a retired Degussa Corp. executive; J. Gary Cooper of Commonwealth National  Bank; Sydney Raine of Mobile Works; Gigi Armbrecht of BellSouth; Mike Fitzhugh of BankTrust; Bestor Ward of Ward Properties; Howard Bronson, publisher of The Mobile Register; Mayer Mitchell, a local businessman and philanthropist;  John Lewis of Lewis Communications, Lowell Friedman of Creola Investment Group. Keith King of Volkert Engineering, Harris Morrisette of Marshalls Biscuits. retired executive Ollie Delchamps; Edgar Downing and John Davis of Mobile Gas; Billy Seifert of AmSouth/Regions Bank; Mike Granger of Compass Bank; Lee Moncrief formerly of Wachovia Bank; Al Heffernan of Ciba Geigy and recent chairman of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce; Charles White of Franklin Primary Health Center; Mark Nix of Mobile Infirmary; Sarah Damson of Long’s Personnel, University of South Alabama President Gordon Moulton . – MBT
  • Forward Mobile is active in the guidance of the Mobile County Public Schools. Forward Mobile had a role in pulling together a coalition that successfully engineered the area’s first new tax for education in about 40 years. After Doug Magann was fired in 1993, Forward Mobile members urged the school board to select a candidate from outside Mobile. When the school board named Interim Superintendent Paul Sousa the permanent superintendent, the decision alarmed many Forward Mobile members. Forward Mobile was recently involved in trying to manage the Problems at Bishop State, according to the Mobile Bay Times.
• 100 Black Men of Mobile, a group of civic and business leaders, operates the Phoenix Program, which helps troubled students. Mayor Sam Jones is a founding member of the 100 Black Men
  • The old Blount High School in Prichard will house an alternative school for the Phoenix Program run by the 100 Black Men of Mobile. The Phoenix Program takes in as many as 200 students each year who have been suspended long-term from middle or high school and are at risk of simply dropping out. Through the Phoenix Program, students complete their core classes — math, science, social science and language arts — as well as computer classes while receiving counseling services to help them improve their behavior. The Phoenix Program operates on a $720,000 annual budget, funded through federal money the school system receives. It has a staff of about 40 people, including teachers and counselors
• Junior League of Mobile. The Junior League of Mobile was founded in 1925 as the Mobile Charity League. In 1932 it was incorporated into the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI). 
• The Manassas Club, now extinct, was formed in 1861 in celebration of the Confederate victory. It occupied the former Bank of Mobile building. The Queen of Mardi Gras originally watched parades from its balcony. It ended in 1914.
• The Fidelia Club was founded by prominent Jewish families. Its lodge was on Government Street. It closed in the 1930s.
• The Athelstan Club formed in 1873 (from a Masonic Lodge which had started in 1870). Its building was built on St. Francis Street across from Bienville Square. During Mardi Gras, King Felix III and his knights stop to toast his queen at the Athelstan Club’s viewing stand during their parade. Women are welcome in the club as guests, but not as members. There are no restrictions barring membership on racial, religious or ethnic grounds, although the club has always been entirely white. Black prospects have been invited to apply for membership, but none followed through on the offer, a board member said. In recent years, membership has fallen to about 530, well below the club’s capacity of 800, a club director and several members acknowledged. – Chip Drago, PR 1/28/2007
• Mobile United began in 1972 during the conflicts arising from racial integration
• The Wistaria Study Club was organized in 1937 to “encourage educational betterment and stimulate intellectual and liberal culture.” One of the club’s most far-reaching efforts to aid education was its nursing scholarship program, which the group sponsored from 1940 to 1965. In addition to the nursing program, the Wistaria Study Club supported various local, state, and national charities or groups such as Murphy High School, the Miss Alabama Scholarship Fund, and the Creek Indian Fund.
• The Woman’s Clubhouse Association was founded in 1929 as a “social society to create and maintain an organized center of thought and activity among the women of Mobile; to aid in the promotion of their mutual interests in the advancement of science, education, civics, patriotism, literature, art, community service; and to provide a place of meeting for the comfort and convenience of its members.”
• The Non-Partisan Voters Organization traces its history to the 1960s civil rights movement, when activists launched the Non-Partisan Voters League. Community leaders revived the group in the 1990s under its new name.
• Mobile Area Young Professionals Alliance (MAYPA): Formed in 2007 to facilitate job placement in the Mobile area by serving as a resource for career-seeking graduates and firms looking for entry-level candidates. – Sharman Egan, Lagniappe, 10/23/07 
• Society Mobile-La Habana

Volunteer Organizations

• Mobile Volunteering Opportunites
• The Rotary Club of Mobile was founded in 1914 by L.J. (”Lou”) Davis, manager of the Mobile Gas Company, and Dr. Seale Harris, when 34 men met in the Battle House Hotel.
  • In 1931 negotiations began between the Mobile Rotary Club and the Mobile Infirmary Association, to start a specific facility for the care of crippled children. This eventually became the Rotary Rehabilitation Hospital.
• Mobile chapter of the League of Women Voters
• Camp Rap-A-Hope is a one-week summer camp for children and teenagers who have ever been diagnosed with cancer and are 7 to 17 years of age.   It is free of charge.  Camp Rap-A-Hope was founded by the Medical Society and the Alliance to the Medical Society of Mobile County, in 1985. It takes place at Scoutshire Woods.  Our campers usually reside along the Gulf Coast in the states of Alabama , Mississippi , Florida and Louisiana .  Additional events are planned throughout the year such as a Baybears game, holiday party at Bellingrath Gardens and family fun days. 
• In 1999, the Board of Directors for Goodwill Industries of the Gulf Coast, Inc. and Easter Seals of Mobile, joined to form one Board of Directors and merged the two organizations to become Goodwill Easter Seals of the Gulf Coast, Inc
  • Goodwill Industries of the Mobile Area, Inc. was incorporated in 1956, by a group of interested citizens, the Civitan Club of Mobile, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Methodist Foundation.  Its purpose was to provide training and employment opportunities to people with disabilities.
  • The first activities of the Alabama Society in the Mobile area can be traced back to 1932 and was then and is still today, influenced to a large extent by the Mobile Rotary Club.  The Rotarians opened a 25 bed orthopedic ward for the physically “handicapped children” at the Mobile Infirmary in 1932. 
• Volunteer Mobile, Inc. was established in 1975 by the Junior League of Mobile and the Community Chest and Council. Volunteer Mobile is affiliated with Hands On Network and The Points of Light Foundation.
• The Mobile Female Benevolent Society was founded in 1829 as a non-denominational organization to aid indigent widows through the donation of food, clothing, and medical supplies. In 1835 the Mobile Female Benevolent Society built and maintained several houses called “Widow’s Row” at Dearborn and Warren streets. Later the society purchased the Gazzam home at the corner of Government and Ann streets to house the women. This is the present site of a new facility known as Murray House, owned and operated by the Episcopal diocese of the Central Gulf Coast under the auspices of the Mobile Female Benevolent Society.
• Jesse Norwood founded the Prichard Mohawks and the Mohawks Foundation

Foundations:

• Top 50 Alabama Foundations, 2000
• The Community Foundation of South Alabama was formed in 1975 as The Mobile Community Foundation. The foundation was designed to complement the work of United Way by providing grants to agencies other than social service organizations. The Foundation makes grants to non-profit organizations in the fields of arts and recreation, education, social services, health, community, civic and others. Our Undesignated Endowment Fund allows The Foundation to respond quickly through proactive grants to non-profit organizations through South Alabama.  Board of Directors
• Ben May Chartiable Trust
• Sybil H. Smith Charitable Trust
• Monte L. Moorer Foundation
• J.L. Bedsole Foundation
• Hearin-Chandler Foundation.  It is managed by Thomas Van Antwerp. Its headquarters are in the Franklin Fire Station Building on Bienville Square.
• Crampton Trust A.S. Mitchell Foundation
• George C. Meyer Foundation and Erie H. Meyer Charitable Fund
• Mitchell family foundations.
• Dorothy Morris of Semmes, heir to her late husband’s vast timber estate, bequeathed more than $10 million to the Shriners Hospital for Children to open a burn unit in Mobile. Morris did not have any children and wanted to leave her money to the Shriners since her husband was a member. The proposed burn center still needs approval from USA and officials on the national level of the Shriners organization. In addition to the money, the Morris family left a considerable amount of timberland in Mobile and Clarke counties to the organization. – PR 12/28/07

Boards and Committees

• The committee that directed the Competitive Strategies Group report was chaired by real estate executive Gavin Bender and includes among its members: County Commission President Mike Dean; Gordon Moulton, president of the University of South Alabama; county administrator John Pafenbach; Norman Hill of Volkert and Associates; county engineer Joe Ruffer; Mobile attorney and retired congressman Jack Edwards; onetime Major General J. Gary Cooper, a local banker and former state senator; Ms. Cheryl Thompson, vice president in the Mobile division of Alabama Power; Jeff Newman, vice president, Mobile County Board of Realtors; Vance McCown of McCown Construction; Bay Haas, director of the Mobile Airport Authority; Bill Siefert, senior vice president, AmSouth Bank; Ron Davis, mayor of Prichard; Don Kelly of the Mitchell Corporation; and Ms. Margie Wilcox of Bay Area Transportation. – MBT
• The Mobile Industrial Development Board has elected new officers for 2008. Real estate agent and former banking chief Lee Moncrief was chosen for a one-year term as president. Commercial real estate agent Adam Metcalfe was named vice president, while Northside Check Exchange owner Council Powell Sr. was named treasurer. Cheryl Thompson, Alabama Power Co.’s Mobile Division vice president, stepped down after two years as president.
• Local Investors in Gulf Coast Entertainment LLC developing the Alabama Motorsports Park in Prichard include: Mike Dow, former Congressman Sonny Callahan and his partners – local attorneys Braxton Counts and Daniel Cushing; Bob Shallow, owner of REMAX Paradise in Orange Beach; Rick Edwards, a land developer in Point Clear; Richard Schwartz, a restaurant owner and developer in Gulf Shores; and Rick Skelton, a developer of Bon Secour Village; and Fairhope real estate developer Cabell Outlaw.
• The Board of Directors of Ladd-Peebles Stadium includes: Braxton Counts III, Milton Joyner, A. Earl McKinnell Jr., W. Terrance Ankerson, Ronald Davis, Mark A. Newell, Thelma Cooke Thrash, and Paul H. Christopher.
• The Mobile Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation board of directors:Tonya Naughton, Lindsey Hannahan, Susie Foster, Jamie Lipham, Chris Paragone, Tal Vickers, Boyd Douglas, Tim Jones, Rob Middleton, M. Stacy Lassiter, Corey Jenkins, Braxton Counts, Sonny Middleton, Allen Cox, Mary Cane, Randy Huffman, Tim James, Lee Waller, Doug Stephen
• Mobile Arts and Sports Association Membership, parent organization of the Senoir Bowl (* Member MASA Board of Trustees): Russell Allman, Doug Anderson, Terry Ankerson, Gigi Armbrecht, Owen Bailey, G. Robert Baker, Jr., Mike Barnett, Bob Baumhower, Walter Bell*, Joe Bullard, Robert Campbell, John Case, Samuel Cochran, W.G. Coffeen, III, Angus Cooper, Dr. Stephen Cope, Braxton Counts III, John Davis, Randy Delchamps*, Robert Drew*, Dr. Ed Dyas, Steve Hale, Clifton Inge, Jr., Ann Jackson, T.K. Jackson, III*, Charles S. Jones, Samuel Jones*, Patrick Ladd, Greg Leatherbury, Jr.*, Victor H. Lott, Jr.*, Dr. G. Michael Maitre, Sr.*, LaBarron McClendon, R.C. McClure, Jr., Lawrence McKinney, Lee Moncrief, Clifton Morrissette, Harris Morrissette, Mark Newell*, John Peebles, Michael Pierce, Erling Riis, III, Bill Robinson, William R. Seifert, II*, Tom Sirmon, Mike Strong*, Frederick W. Taul*, Cheryl Thompson, Terry Thompson*, Judson Wells, Bill Withers, Larry Wooley
• BancTrust Financial Group: W. Lamar Jr., Michael Fitzhugh, J. Nelson, Dennis Wallace, Stephen Crawford, David De Laney, Broox Garrett Jr.,  Clifton Inge Jr. (Ipc Industries), Caulie Knowles III (Commercesouth Bank), James Faulkner, W. Harrigan, Harris Morrissette (Marshall Biscuit Company), Paul Owens Jr., John Lewis Jr., Tracy Conerly